LIRR Freight operations at Hicksville Yard

JJ Earl said:

One engineer went high class and had to something Bavarian while the rest of us settled for something made in Brooklyn. Wink

That "Smoething made in Brooklyn" wouldn't have been Piels' would it?

My father worked there as night engineer from 1950 until his retirement in 1967. I spent many an evening watch with him as a teenager, with ice, cold Piels beer on tap. It was part of their union contract: free beer on tap 24 hrs a day for the employees. (OSHA, cover your eyes and ears! And . . me a minor at that . . Ach du Lieber! I vas trinking Piel's bier auf mein vater's lap since aitch tree!)

Needless to say, I looked forward to those trips into Brooklyn with him!

Also, your "meals-on-wheels" sounds so very inviting! I've been told that many a freight guy fought each other for access to the "head" after one of those "high-tech" meals!

I gather it was hard to hold a lantern with one hand and your stomach with the other and still stay on a moving car! Whooooaaaa! express coming thru! Outta me way!

Love your anecdotes, JJ! Write a book! I'll buy it.

Dave

Where was Friendly Frost, and what was the configuration of their spur? I don't remember any spurs on the south side of the tracks in Hicksville.

Legio X wrote:Where was Friendly Frost, and what was the configuration of their spur? I don't remember any spurs on the south side of the tracks in Hicksville.

Switches on the south side made by reverse move from the west switch.
Frost and Colonial were just east of Charlotte Ave.
What I describe was 1963. Five years later these sidings were gone, but I could be wrong. There is a big hole in the ground today where the sand and gravel company had been and I am assuming that sand was shipped out leaving a Grand Canyon for Hicksville.

Dave, I never remember having had a bad meal.
Don't forget, the flagman had to eat it, too.
I was drinking Piel's Real Draft at the time.
Schaeffer and Rhinegold were the preferred and Lowenbrau was the only import that could be found in local stores.

JJ:

I had heard from some freight guys that some of those Hack-meals left a lot to be desired but I guess you had a good cook there!!!

That's the guy to have in your crew!! A good cook is better than gold!

As for the liquid gold:

Piel's Real Draft . . . great stuff!

Rheingold and Schaeffer and Ruppert Knickerbocker were NYC beers, but Piel's and Trommer's White Label (in later years brewed by Piel's) were ALL BROOKLYN!

Dave

Dave Keller wrote:JJ:
Rheingold and Schaeffer and Ruppert Knickerbocker were NYC beers, but Piel's and Trommer's White Label (in later years brewed by Piel's) were ALL BROOKLYN!

Piels took supplies off the Bay Ridge branch in New Lots yard.
Rhinegold took thiers in Bushwick.
Muldoon trucking took covered hoppers loaded with brewing supplies.
Muldoon's huge vacuum cleaner-like machine emptied the cars into trucks and then delivered them to the Rhinegold brewery on Forrest St.
I believe that Piels was being made by Rhinegold in 1976 when Rhinegold closed up shop and moved to New Jersey.

Hi,

Would you believe that one of my old girlfriends was "Miss Rheingold" ???

When Piel's shut down their Brooklyn and Staten Island operation in the 1970s, the employees with seniority were sent to Schaeffer's by the union. The men with low or no seniority were sent to Rheingold. Later it was found out this was done because Rheingold, too, was about to shut down.

Piel's was then brewed by, I believe, Latrobe in Pennsylvania. Rheingold, too was brewed in PA, maybe by the same company. Not sure after all these years.

Ruppert closed and was brewed by some other brewery complex out of state as was Schaeffer.

Hard to imagine that between Brooklyn and Manhattan there were so many breweries at one time and now there are none, unless there are some "new" microbreweries around. I'm referring to the old-time names. Welz & Zerwick, John Trommer's, Rubsam & Hormann (which became Piel's in Stapleton, SI), Edelbrew, Beverwyck and on and on . . . . .

JJ . . . I think you told me you're a beer historian. Remember other Brooklyn/Manhattan breweries from years past? Ridgewood had them . . Bushwick had them . . .East New York . . . etc.

Pennsy: "Miss Rheingold??" And didja watch the NY Giants at the Polo Grounds?

"My beer is Rheingold, the dry beer. . . . . " (oom pah pah, oom pah, pah)

Dave

Hi Dave,

Worse than that, I actually went to the Polo Grounds to see the games. Never forget the subway rides to and from. Really long subway rides.

I've got a couple of great shots of the EL at the station in front of the old Polo Grounds, with the stadium in both shots.

Great memories. Great vintage stuff! Can't imagine the thousands of people leaving trains and walking to the stadium and the crush back after the game!!!

Hard to imagine what it must have been like all those years ago when one looks at the area in later days.

Dave

You probably know this, but Rheingold is back. It is brewed upstate, I believe in Utica. It is quite good, and the price is right: $3.99 for a six-pack of tallnecks. I wonder if the brewery is served by rail. Speaking of breweries in Utica, F.X. Matt Brewing, the makers of the Saranac premium beer product line are located there. In the book about the Susquehanna there is a picture of the brewery being switched, I believe by an NYSW Alco C430.

Poor Schultz & Dooley. They can no longer get thier Utica Club beer and ale. FX Matt now only has room for Saranac and Rhinegold. He brews the Brooklyn brews too. (They don't have a bottling plant in Brooklyn)
At least Bert and Harry can have a Piels now and then if they know where to look.

Piel's had a plant in Willamansett, Mass., next town south of Holyoke.

While riding (1968-1970) in the cab of an ALCO S1 with the local B&M freight crew who worked out of Holyoke, we switched the brewery on several occasions.

JJ: Where is Bert & Harry alive today? I know when they were brewed by Latrobe, they really stunk! Made Schmidt's taste good!

Dave

Dave Keller wrote:I've got a couple of great shots of the EL at the station in front of the old Polo Grounds, with the stadium in both shots.

Great memories. Great vintage stuff! Can't imagine the thousands of people leaving trains and walking to the stadium and the crush back after the game!!!

Hard to imagine what it must have been like all those years ago when one looks at the area in later days.

Dave

In 1957, my future father-in-law was a transit cop assigned to patrol the elevated between Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds, before he joined the NYPD. After he died, my mother-in-law gave me his railroad watch an an "inheritance."

Dave and anyone else wondering where Piels went.
Check out the following.

http://www.pabst.com/mainpage.html

Now I have to find Knickerbocker.

Yo Duke...,

Good thing I still like Pabst Blue Ribbon. Pilsner is certainly different.

By the way, in the good old days we used to get the Piels Pale Ale. According to my MD friends, Ale acts like a tranquillizer and calms you down. I told them that often we were so calm we could hardly move. So try Ale every now and then, especially when your blood pressure is going through the ceiling.